


Tali's Hangover

by gvarchangel



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hangover, Humor, Quarians, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 20:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15781866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gvarchangel/pseuds/gvarchangel
Summary: What was my first attempt at fanfiction years ago, featuring what's still my favorite fictional couple, Tali and Shepard. (Yes, Male Shepard. I'm boring.)Takes place during ME3, following Sanctuary mission. Essentially the fallout of Tali getting absolutely plastered on Turian Brandy. Just fluffy, romantic nonsense that still holds a special place in my heart. Hope you all enjoy.Credit for the picture goes to Palavenmoons over on Tumblr, who was wonderful in making this commission for me!





	Tali's Hangover

"I'm having a drink with my boyfriend. My human boyfriend. My father would have hated you." Tali laughs drunkenly, almost falling out of her chair in the process.  
"Here's to him, then." I say, raising up an imaginary glass in salute.  
"And to Miranda." she says before fumbling with the straw/emergency induction port again. She tries to mutter something else out, but the drunken slurs become too hard to decode. It's entertaining to watch her get the straw to the injection slot under her helmet. When she finally succeeds, she polishes off the glass.

"Well, I need to go down to bed." she giggles and stands up. She falls over and onto me inside of a second. I catch her, barely, and keep her up.  
"I think you're going to need some help getting down there." I say, trying to prop her up again.  
"No, I'm-" -hic- "I'm fine." she says when she gets her feet back under her. But she falls again, straight to the floor.  
"All right, come here." I say protectively. I pick her up and hold her. "You're sleeping this off in my cabin."  
"Are you sug" -hic- "gesting something?" she says and rubs her hand across my face.  
"Yeah, that you'll be hung over like hell in the morning, and you'll need some help getting through the day."  
"Thank you..." she says. Then her hand falls back to her chest and she passes out. Holy shit, she's drunk.

I carry her to the elevator when EDI opens the door for me. "Thanks." I say to the omnipresent voice.  
"I assume you want to bring her to your cabin." EDI announces from some hidden speaker.  
"Please and thank you."  
In a few seconds, we're at my room. Again, the doors open for me so I can set her down on the bed. I cover her with the sheets on the right side and lay her on her side, like she slept the last time she was here. "EDI, run a quick sterilizer on the room while I'm gone. I'm going to get her something for in the morning."  
"As you wish."  
I walk back over to the elevator and select the crew deck again.

When I get down, I go to Chakwas office, where she's in her usual spot in her chair. "Can I help you, Commander?" she asks calmly.  
"Can I get a few antibiotics and painkillers for Tali?"  
"Is there something I should know?" she asks, reaching into her cabinets.  
"She's passed out drunk in my room. First time I've seen her drunk, and she got down almost an entire bottle of Turian whiskey."  
"My word." she says and pulls out a bottle of pills. "These will help her in the morning for the headache. Why do you want antibiotics?"  
"Going to take her mask off and lay her next to a pot. Can't have her puking in her helmet. Just all kinds of gross."  
"That makes sense." she says. She hands me a small syringe and needle. "Give her this shot in the arm before you take off the mask. Be sure to sterilize the room, and don't try to do anything to her while she's asleep. There's no telling how the Turian drink will react to your system."  
"Got it, Karin. Thanks."  
"Just a moment." she says as I walk out the door. "There is something I think you should know about Tali."  
"What?" I ask, curious. "There something I should be worried about?"  
"No, no. Not at all. Just something you ought to know." she says. "I've been running test on everyone on the ship since you first came on. Just basic things after your never ending fire fights on God-forsaken planets. I noticed a pattern on Miss vas Normandy's charts. It's her immune system."  
"What about it?"  
"On a hunch, I exposed a sample of her immune system to a sample of human tissue. On the samples of her tissue from the original Normandy and even the SR2, the cells would die the moment they came in contact with the human tissue, like when a cold breaks through a system and infects the host. This is what causes her to become sick after each contact with you."  
I shrug. "So? Quarians have always had a crappy immune system, Tali included. What's the big revelation?"  
"The latest samples from her aren't dying. They're winning the fight."

"Hang on, run that by me again." I say, throwing my hands up in surrender. "What do you mean winning?"  
"I mean that Tali's immune system is strong enough to not react to human tissue presence. She might not have those horrible sickness symptoms after she comes in contact with you outside the suit."  
It's quiet for a few seconds while I try to wrap my head around the whole situation. "Are you saying that Tali might be able to live without her suit?"  
She shakes her head. "No. Her system still loses the fight more often than not. And the only significant change is only to your tissue. Even with other dextro-amino acid races, like Garrus, and other humans, Ashley, that she's spent time with, the reaction is almost as bad as new samples. It fights better with familiar samples, but it's the difference between a four day flu and a three day flu. Soon enough, though, she won't need it around you."

"How soon?" I ask, sounding more desperate than I intended.  
"A few weeks, maybe. I'm not sure. I don't understand all of this myself. You just have to be patient, Commander."  
I sigh and shake my head some. "I know, I know. I'm getting ahead of myself. It's just... It's Tali. You know?"  
She nods with a smile. "I know. I've never seen a couple quite so in love. "Love is like ambition, impatient of both obstacles and delays.""  
I give up a grin. "Thanks, Karin. You just made my day."  
"Any time." she chuckles as she returns to her seat.

I grab a pot from the kitchen and carry my new load up to the cabin again. "The room has been successfully sterilized, Shepard." EDI announces as I enter the room.  
"Thanks, EDI. Tell Engineering Tali's spending the night here. Just leave out the part about being drunk."  
"As you wish." she says.  
When I reach Tali, I set the pot next to her head, just in case she pukes in her sleep. Then I give her the shot in her forearm, where there's an injection zone she always uses for these things. I still wince a little when I hear her groan from the needle. I toss the empty syringe in the garbage.  
After all that, I carefully pull off her mask. She's sound asleep, her eyelids not even twitching. I feel the slightest hint of a smile come across my face. I don't even know why. Just seeing her face... It always brings more peace and happiness than anything else ever has. She looks even sweeter asleep. I break down and give her a little kiss on the forehead. "I love you, baby girl." I whisper, even though she can't hear it.  
I take off my jacket and shoes and toss them on the rack in the corner, where they always go. I brush my teeth, then crawl into bed on the other side. It takes every ounce of will power not to curl up against her again. We haven't shared my bed since we split up after the Collectors. Add that with the inevitable hangover in the morning when she wakes up, and it just isn't a good idea. Maybe in the next few days... Tomorrow night we'll be hitting Cerberus... We're getting close to the end again... But for tonight, having her here is enough. I pull some of the sheets over myself and drift off for the night.

After about five hours, I hear the shower running. It takes me a second to shake out the cobwebs. Why is the shower running? I look over to the other side of the bed, and Tali's gone. The sheets are still warm, though. I stumble my way over to the bathroom door and knock. "Are you ok, Tali?" I ask.  
"Oh, Keelah. Please knock softly." she groans through the door.  
"Welcome to the wonderful world of hangovers, baby girl." I chuckle. I open up my closet and grab some sweats, a t-shirt, and a towel. I throw the bottle of painkillers atop the stack before returning to the door.  
"I'm coming in. I promise I won't look." I say. I open the door, covering my eyes with one hand. "Here's a towel, along with some clothes and headache meds."  
"Thank you." she says and takes the stack from my hand. "I'll be out as soon as the medicine and shower start working." I laugh to myself as I roll back into bed.

Ten minutes later, she comes out dried off and looking tired as hell. "Did the medicine help?" I ask.  
"Not nearly enough." she moans as she crawls over the bed to me. "I swear I will never touch alcohol again in my life."  
"I guess I'll have to find a new drinking buddy when we win this war, won't I?" I chuckle. "That's probably a good thing."  
"Why?" She reaches me and leans back into my arms, using me for a pillow and back support.  
"Tali, I've seen marines on leave after Elysium that were less shit-faced than you. You do not understand moderation with alcohol at all."  
"Oh, Keelah. Tell me I didn't do anything embarrassing."  
"Not a bit. You gave a short lecture about hating Miranda, then respecting her, then complaining about your father and how he'd hate me. Though there are two slightly embarrassing messages I don't think I can delete. You need to fix your spell check on your omni-tool."  
"Mmm..." she moans and leans more on me.

"Aaron?" she asks softly.  
"Yeah?"  
"Why did I wake up here? Did we..."  
"No, Tali. I'd never take advantage of you like that." I pull her in a little closer and put my chin in her wet raven black hair. "You passed out in the lounge. I carried you up here, gave you some antibiotics, and took off your mask in case you got sick. That's all."  
"Thank you." She moves her head back and gives me a kiss. "I sterilized the brandy out while I was in the shower."  
"Glad I did before I went to sleep."  
She giggles a little and kisses me again.

We sit like that for a few minutes, just listening to each other's heartbeat. I don't know when I started, but I ended up hugging her around her stomach and leaning into her head again. Tali leaned her head against my cheek while her hands found mine. I feel her thumbs gently rubbing the tops of my hands, her soft skin on mine. We've never done this before, just sit together with her outside the suit. I remember every detail of her body from our first time, but... it feels just as good to sit here and hold her.  
"I love you, Tali." I whisper to her.  
"I love you, too." she whispers back.

"Can I have one little request? It's just something I want to know."  
"Anything."  
"Can you tell me why you love me?" she asks softly.  
"What kind of question is that?" I ask, trying to sound joking, but coming off scared.  
"Ever since we started, I've always wondered why you chose me. You could have been with anybody on you wanted on the ship. You could have chosen anyone you could share a meal with, feel their skin everyday, make love to without medications and precautions. You could have been with anyone... Why did you choose me?..."

I pull her a little bit closer to me. Somehow, I think I know just what to say.  
"Let me start with why I wanted to be with you in the first place." I whisper in her ear. "My family had a saying. Always be with the one who would be your best friend if they weren't your lover. You and Garrus were my best friends on both of the Normandys. You were funny, you were smart, you were tough, you were a good person. And you were loyal. That meant more to me than anything. You stuck by me through everything. It meant you cared about me too. You were a good friend to me. That's why I was interested in you in the first place.  
"After that, there was obviously the physical attraction. You're cute, you're adorable, you're sexy. You're just beautiful to me. That suit, your curves, the way you carried your shotgun, that perfect butt you've always had."  
She giggles a little at the last joke. "And did I love hearing you laugh. It was perfect. Everything about you made me want to just watch you forever, even if we were getting shot at at the same time. I had to make myself stop staring when we helped Zaeed and you were watching the waterfall. I can't remember a word he said, but I remember watching you. And that was just perfect.

"And then I started to see the you that no one else ever saw. I saw how sweet you were, all of those little fears and quirks most people never see or notice. I couldn't get enough of them. For some reason, I became obsessed with learning about you. Just watching you was enough for me. I loved watching you twiddle your fingers when you were nervous, curse to yourself in Keelish when something wasn't working for you, praise that combat drone while it tortured the mercs. I became like that Meatloaf song "It Just Won't Quit." I couldn't describe it, but you became the only thing on my mind. When you said that you had wanted to be with me too... It was like a dream come true.

"I fell in love with you when I saw your face. I'm not being cheesy or trying to say that I only love you for your looks but... Just looking at you gives me peace, Tali. There's something about those red and white eyes, this raven black hair, even the little silver lines that run under your skin... Everything about you is perfect. I can just look at you, and all those knots in my stomach from stress and the anxiety I have are just gone. I feel like I want to fall asleep in your arms every time I look at you. I heard a quote a while back that I finally understand. “A man reserves his deepest love not for the species of woman in whose company he finds himself electrified and enkindled, but in whose company he may feel tenderly drowsy.”

"I can't point out one reason why I love you, or even a dozen. Because I don't know. All I know is that I love you, and I never want to leave you."  
I give her a kiss on her forehead and lean mine to hers. "Does that work for an answer?"

She moves her head just enough for me to look into her eyes. Under the red and white irises, I see something I've never seen in someone else's: love. True, unmistakable, pure, knock you on your ass love. I just hope I'm giving her just as much back. She turns her head and kisses me, letting me taste what I already knew.  
"If I have to suffer through another hangover for that, it's totally worth it." she giggles.  
"All you have to do is ask, Tali. And I promise I'll tell you the same thing every time you ask. Deal?"  
She kisses me again. "Deal."

"You're welcome to spend the night up here."  
"I will. Only if you want me to."  
"I do. Only if you promise you will every night."  
"Then I promise."  
"Keelah se'lai..."  
"Keelah se'lai...”

 


End file.
